the u.s. is warning the latest battles in syria will be president. as we report here at r.t. how youngsters are now being increasingly drawn into the bloody conflict both sides . with the reverberations members of a russian punk band go on trial facing seven years in jail for a protest stand in a church. that has divided russian society. and not a campaign promise goes unfulfilled as barack obama spends billions to prosecute whistleblowers showing the u.s. government to be.

it is now a five pm on monday here in moscow you're watching r t live with me. the u.s. military chief says the fighting in syria's largest city of aleppo will ultimately be a nail in president assad's coffin leon panetta is currently on a middle east tour promising to continue to push for departure the commercial hub of aleppo has been the scene of fierce battles between syrian regime troops and government forces for more than a week now both parties view the fighting as decisive and likely to define the country's fate with the u.s. and its allies condemning president assad for the civil conflict the standoff is getting more violent on both sides and. reports it's now seeing more and more youngsters getting involved. young minds burning hearts bad blood while the

syrian conflict often comes across as a power struggle of grown man on the ground many of those who fight and die are in their late teens early twenty's. this group of f.s.a. snipers operates in a deserted town forty kilometers southwest of homes twice a day to god to shell a syrian army checkpoint nearby omar is twenty three he left his family in dubai to join the uprising. to support the young fighters and to feel the pain and to experience was very experiencing on the ground and to help with the operation. while their weapons are becoming more sophisticated if you are good at handling them most say they want to become martyrs and their dads help recruit their younger brothers. but those they're aiming at are not much older at a military hospital in damascus

a week long supply of coffins has been used in boston forty eight hours while the syrian authorities do you know it really is an illiterate just so all indications are that over the past few months it has increased dramatically here in damascus main military hospital nineteen soldiers and officers died just the last two days. in the beginning of the uprising the soldiers were laid to rest to the sounds of a solemn march but if you days ago a military band was. now the burial site conducted in silence and then. nineteen year old he is an army conscript tasked with getting bodies into conference it was working in his uncle small shop and i love you for being drafted a year ago. no i'm not afraid to die all that to be in the place of my fallen comrades and to become a martyr defending my country it's every man's duty. and now the nineteen year old lies in a coffin just a few steps away he was the victim of

a sniper near homs but unlike many in syria his father and uncle are not calling for revenge. we just want peace. jesus all the prophets called for peace we need it. martyrdom has long been glorified in muslim countries but it's also one of the reasons why the conflict in syria has been so protracted and sold deadly when the youngsters profess readiness to die for their cause they usually even more ready to kill for it. artsy damascus syria. and oksana is constantly following the developments in the syrian conflict from deep inside the country sharing her firsthand experience of how twitter feed. images from the conflict zone also lined up there also for more news on syria and other developing stories just check out a general strike. by the syrian opposition has asked its foreign allies to provide

heavy weapons to fight president assad author and journalist afshin rattansi thinks the flow of arms into the rebels' hands could have dire international consequences . call for weapons that some from the syrian national council have been making in abu dhabi this is this is getting worse and worse and the blowback for these countries that are aiding already aiding the islamist fighters is astounding i mean as far as i understand it parts of northern syria are already in the control of the control of could they call it western culture still and bathrooms in syria but i think the turkish authorities will be happy with the for the blowback for the united states last time they went around doing this alarming these jihadists sending special forces and so forth we got september the eleventh two thousand and one and the attacks on the world trade center in the pentagon the white house while the saudis are obviously on the qataris are overseas sending in their arms across the border is interesting that saudi arabia is also having problems at home i don't

think you'll see the mainstream media want to cover problems in saudi arabia that oil superpower in the oil rich east of the country they will no doubt get the arms and i noticed that the syrian foreign minister being over in tehran and already the american press talking about syria's w m d and the chemical weapons i don't think this time around the west are going to intervene using their means they're going to they're going to go the proxy way they did in afghanistan. you're watching r t it's good to have you with us today still ahead we're in the program a romanian president try and survives a second impeachment despite a large majority wanting him gone from office for supporting rounds of harsh austerity measures shows that sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. nations outside the e.u. currency could also become victims of the crisis stay with us here on our to to find out why the u.k. and russia are considered to be at risk should the euro for.

now it was a music performance that split russian society and could land three members of a female punk band in jail for up to seven years three feminist rockers from pussy riot who have gone on trial here in moscow for staging an government. in the capital's main cathedral. now reports public opinion is torn between those who call the martyrs and others who say they are blasphemous. this is rush's punk protest group to see riots they hit the headlines early this year and gained international recognition when they performed a stunt enquires to save your kids the drill they form one of the protest songs and that got wide recognition on the internet and saw them detained causing outrage among the rushes religious community for a number of years they've been carrying out these type of proposal to provoke it to stop they had one in the zoological museum here in russia where they filmed animal

sick stunt that again again wide recognition on the internet another of the stunts included running up to the female police officers on the underground and kissing them is saying that they did cross the line when they performed in the crisis a few cathedral the trial starts today and they face up to seven years in jail if that found guilty charged with hooliganism related to religious hatred they've already been in trial now for five months already to the members have young children so there's a lot of questions that have been raised save this i suppose is they need to fall to heavy handed approach that this type of stuff is cool to months of control the city here in russia really has divided the population you've got people taking very radical stone says both ways the religious community have reacted very very strongly we have patriarch kirill coming out some calling it blasphemy to send

a lot of professional soldiers archery so they go some in the full of international musicians like staying the red hot chili peppers we have france but. earlier this month one of the most case music festivals and they also showed support for the girls you get to hear a lot about the silliness of the stunts and a lot of the supporters saying that perhaps it is misguided but the question is really now remain a how and indeed even if these go should be punished in this way for the stunt. reporting right. shows his opinion of pussy riot in an interview with the u.k.'s times newspaper you can find it on dot com plus discover how the nato intervention in libya last year is impacting russia's stance on the crisis in syria as well as medvedev thoughts on the olympic games and how sochi can prepare for two thousand and fourteen. plus empty seats in london as members of the so-called lympics.

feeling the heat and the great laying. out of schools to fill the void. if they shoot something inappropriate from the public they can easily be. casualties of war ok. i wish he would have never happened but it has. been a war a t.v. camera becomes unnecessary would destroy their own safety all foreign nationals including journalists and inspectors should leave. and it's clear for thousands with such witnesses we got it right. first shooting on our.

thank you for joining us here today in two thousand and eight i made a promise that if he was elected president he would make the u.s. government more transparent it's not two thousand and twelve and he's prosecuted a record number of spending on the process. as the story. well with keeping government secrets is expensive business according to america's information security office last year the u.s. spent around thirteen billion dollars on classifications that's twice as much as it spends ten years ago and more than the entire budget of the country's environmental protection agency for instance the u.s. government keeps way too many secrets even even government entities responsible for evaluating these things like the office for government information oversight. these

offices have may have done studies and said well you know a lot of this material doesn't need to be protected so it's in many ways it's a huge waste of money u.s. security agencies regularly fight in courts to keep volumes of decades old documents classified like the files on the cia's bay of pigs operation in cuba when the u.s. tried to overthrow fidel castro in one thousand nine hundred sixty one but the sharp increase in secrecy over the last decade is due to america's expanding counterterrorism programs rather than on classified historical files the power that the national security state has acquired under president obama is greater than any time history. during the cold war period the government indicted only three people for disclosing classified information however the obama administration alone has prosecuted six government officials for leaking information to the press more than

all other past administrations combined and thomas drake was one of them he was a senior executive of america's largest intelligence agency during the bush administration he blew the whistle on fraud and abuse with regards to the agency's secret surveillance program mr drake was charged under the espionage act watching what's happening now particular my case it's sad extraordinarily chilling message that anybody has a senior executive the government had a very high position to say. it sends an extraordinarily chilling message that if you speak out if you speak up we're going to hammer you and we're going to hammer you hard because look what we did to mr drake but after a public outcry last year the government dropped charges against thomas drake in exchange for him pleading guilty to a misdemeanor of misuse of a government computer speaking truth to power is very dangerous in today's world the power elites. those in charge they don't like dirty linen being

aired. they don't like the skeletons in the closet being seen. and they not only do they object to it they decide to turn it into criminal activity national security german they say the government always has and always will leak information deliberately to advance their own interests and it's not at all leakers that they're after the primary so now we're going to look at you know here is that the national security state is striking back is becoming much more repressive in regard to its response to whistle blowing by you know individuals who oppose policies that are being carried out or who oppose simply abuses of power the obama administration is spending record amounts to keep its secrets coming down hard on leakers and yet thousands of classified documents are making their way onto the web the internet has taken leaks to

a whole new level but it seems the more the internet reveals the more upset the government becomes about secrecy and i'm going to check on in washington our team. and i while some in the u.s. a busy trying to silence those speaking out others marginalize anyone who doesn't agree with mainstream politics talk to howard friedman argues the american political system disregards the interests of the poorest people you can see the interview in full in about an hour and sixteen minutes from now. i can't under estimate the impact of money on the american political system and in fact there's some interesting analysis done by political scientists that show that people from the top third of the economic class have a very strong voice in government people in the middle third have a weak voice in government and it showed that people in the bottom third of the economic group united states have no measurable influence that's

a real challenge in american democracy is to make sure that we really are in a world of one person one vote instead of dollar equals vote. wealthy british style sun it's time to rise on. the. market why not. come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike stronger or a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines cause a report. from. the motion.

which brightened if you move the song from funds to pressure. means for instance on t.v. don't come. live from moscow this is our t. just a moment on the world update for now romania's president has survived a referendum on his impeachment this for the second time during his rule try on that process who could have been the latest e.u. leaders swept from office by the economic crisis and austerity measures demanded by international creditors but a low turnout invalidated the poll allowing him to stay in power following the story in bucharest artie's tessa surveyor. initial exit polls have come out on the remain a referendum vote on whether or not to impeach its suspended president of tryon of a cesspool while the numbers show that it failed to reach the a fifty percent plus one vote a requirement in order to validate that vote now sunday's referendum is set and the

three weeks of political bickering really between a center right deficit and his rival center left her and the prime minister on top of the system has been accused of proteas of as well as overstepping his powers as president denies any wrongdoing or that he had done anything on constitutional what's going to happen next is that the cesspool will be reinstated as president and soon as a final numbers come out and if indeed invalidates that referendum vote let's not forget his popularity has gone down a drastically ever since he introduced us there the measures in two thousand and ten as a result of i.m.f. a back without full funding and this is certainly not the way to be easy in a country that is very divided politically very tired of any political bickering and again these two sides seem to show that they are not going to stop accusing the other side of any wrongdoing we're already hearing some scandals coming out again coming from want to side and they will have to figure out a way to work together you have assessed before to still maintaining positions as

president and prime minister what romania nice now really is political stability especially for its european counterparts who are watching this very closely insisting that the country find a way to stabilize the situation and to exercise the prophecy the rule of law is still will be a checks and balances in all the institutions. are before we get to daniel with the arena with the business that's going to be. will start in india for the big twenty eight injured in a fire on board a train flames were spotted as the train was passing through the station officials claim. of course the blazed. the country does have a fairly full rail safety record. similar incident also claimed. hundreds of people have again protested against the really recent fatal police shootings in anaheim california which of. two hundred demonstrators rallied outside the city's police headquarters while a hundred others marched along the main bar at least nine arrest.

us republican presidential candidate mitt romney had embarked on a world tour hoping to boost his profile and he certainly be making headlines after appearing to criticize the london olympics he's now in israel where he referred to the disputed city of jerusalem as the country's capital he also claimed jewish culture is more advanced done palestinians and provoked the wrath of palestinian officials who condemned his statements as racist and unacceptable. oh oh there we are off to murder we go the alethea business yes well i understand it's looking fairly peachy from various aspects but you got some bad news for the u.k. . and that's because the u.k. in fact top the list of the countries most exposed to a fall in the euro and in fact we have a map to show you a better from asian about that basically maple cross consultants i have created this graph they see their show in the most unsafe nations and there and they're

right there it's up for extremely vulnerable countries are the track of public hungary poland and most of all the u.k. as i just mentioned now the study blames its heavy reliance on exports to the continent and you have a spanking system as well fast growing major economies like you also though are also called the higher risk now to discuss this further i'm joined by nick parsons head of research at national australia bank if we can see mr parsons that would be great there you go thank you so much for joining us now can you tell us what can known your old country is it to minimize risks from a decline in the single currency. well they're doing pretty pretty much what they've already done you know countries outside the euro zone can indeed seek to protect themselves they can cut interest rates they can print money in the case of countries like switzerland they can effectively put a floor on their exchange rate so they can seek to protect themselves against

disruptive capital flows they can seek to protect themselves against a collapsing trade but all this is really seeking to minimize damage rather than avoid it there is no doubt that if the single currency were to collapse or disintegrate the economic damage would be substantial right across the world and the european central bank pledge that whatever it takes to save the drive the in particular now every man's in princeton prices if the e.c.b. turns on the present prices what will the demand from these kind of things. well if the c.b. does turn on the printing presses and if it does intervene to buy sovereign bonds in the primary market which at the moment it's it's not thus far done then it think it will show an enormous commitment it also means there's an enormous round going to be fought out very publicly between the e.c.b. and the bundesbank and that is going to create some very volatile market conditions

because even if on thursday mr draghi does put his money where his mouth was and his mouth was there very very clearly and firmly last thursday if he puts his money where his mouth is then we can be pretty sure that although asset markets will react positively straightaway the door should bundesbank he's going to make sure that it gets its voice heard and we're going to see conflicting headlines there a lot of two way trade it's going to be a very very volatile and to this week right now gone bad so there's of course where the maple consultants and what they said why do you think the breaks in the african countries are also higher risk. well i think we've got to look in context here there was a lot of headlines and you you mentioned that russia and other of the bric nations were high risk i looked at the reports and russia was ranked number fifty one hundred sixty nine in and that's really not what you'd classify is the highest risk so i think some of the spin that was put out was perhaps

a little misleading albeit a bull comforting for you guys over there africa is very close through trade links both direct and historical we've got some form of portuguese colonies we've got a whole bunch of countries which got extremely strong trade and banking links and those same banking links. are what essentially bring some latin american countries into the very high risk category two it's fair to say that no one is going to be immune to this and the implications of a. breakup would be wide ranging and generally i think underappreciated people who say what's it got to do with me why should i be concerned well let's hope they don't have to find out because it wouldn't be very nice ok if we can talk about process here for a second thing that we will see those vice banners. do i think will buy spanish do i think people will buy spanish bones investors for the moment

shunning them i think the e.c.b. is going to have to at least securities markets purchase program i think ultimately they're going to have to buy them in the primary market because if spanish yields don't fall below seven percent and stay there for quite some time then i think the discussions around the breakup of the euro will be more vocal going into the autumn of this year and it could be an exceptionally difficult time for markets someone's got to buy spanish bonds. sure but in the absence of private sector demand the public sector through the e.c.b. is going to have to step in all right nick parsons head of research at australian national bank thank you so much for your insight and we have a little bit of time left so let's take a look at european markets and currencies and russia of course see how they're doing europe of course is still rising on the hopes of crosses them with us later this week as you can see there are forty other dogs scattered over half

a percent it was like a look at the exit rates the euro is reversing last week against the greenback when it comes to vasa its makes the guys both major currencies a quick look at the russian markets where we see gains for what straits and for the my side and similarly the r.t.s. is gaining over a half a percent as well and this is what we have time for and that's the version of the business for now i was going to go back to more if i can give you the stocks as we have time most of the blue chips are naturally higher we have noise like i was at super stand there and what we're. the company is at its core metal that's of course nec all the output of a rose by seven percent in the first half of the year we have gas sprawl i've been over one and a half or so without forbes magazine actually named this the world's most profitable company in sooth thousand and eleven and then when it comes to the signal is getting almost a super size as well and that's after it agreed to jointly by mobile operator

symbol dairy and so we have more time because i think you go in the facts the case but i think that's all the time we have for this hour or effects if. you're working too hard today marina take a break. just a moment here on our team about the headlines and then if you've ever thought about pitching in your nine to five day routine and going to live in the middle of nowhere a special documentary is coming your way in just about. everyone

wants to be pretty. whether they're an old lady drugs. but it might be quite tricky to get a fun she cut. because you live around here in siberia. and the only way to get to you is by train. blind rush it would be so much brighter if you knew all about someone from funds to crash and it's.